I attended the Estonian eCommerce Conference and Awards event on January 28th, 2016 in Tallinn. Estonia’s top retail news site, Kaubandus.ee (owned by Äripäev), organised the event and nominated 34 eCommerce sites in 10 different categories to win the award for the most user-friendly online store in Estonia, with a separate winner for each category. The conference featured several speakers and concluded with the award ceremony for the nominees that we mentioned in an earlier post. The finalists were chosen by a panel of judges from the members of the Estonian eCommerce Union, which included also Märt Aab, Product Owner at Vaimo Estonia. You can find coverage in Estonian from the event here.

The board chose the winners according to the following criteria:

Responsiveness of the site across different devices (mobile, desktop computer, tablet)

The efficiency and speed of the customer journey (number of mandatory fields to fill, etc.)

Speed of the online store

The first presentation, “How to Improve the User Experience,” was given by Thomas Storgaard Grønne, Usability Researcher at Baymard Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. He covered three different topics in detail, starting with “UX Research Methodology & Process.” Thomas began by comparing quantitative versus qualitative data, and how the former only tells us WHAT happens, but not WHY certain actions are taken (for example, 20% of users are abandoning their shopping cart). Qualitative data, on the other hand, show how users interact with a site, and A/B testing further illustrates that users are generally interested in what a site FEELS like. For example, a user likes to feel that a site is secure (security icons displayed, lock icon). Thomas insisted that by performing testing, we put ourselves in a user’s shoes and we get the feeling for other behaviours, and this in turn allows us to make more user friendly designs. To close the first topic, we were shown a few high impact examples, starting with one from eBay’s mobile app. Initially, the “bid” button was too small, and users had a tough time seeing it. By making the button larger, eBay earned an extra 500 million dollars. Thomas showed us a few other examples where making simple changes, such as making the search field more prominent, or increasing filter visibility, had a drastic impact on online sales results.

Thomas then covered UX Issues on Estonian eCommerce Sites. Here are a few highlights:

Be cautious of showing overlays when your page loads, as they remind users of pop-up ads.

Too many categories can overwhelm a user; instead, implement sub-product types as filters, instead of categories.

Interlink product variations, so that users see other choices when viewing a product.

Show product information up front, such as when a product is out of stock. Use the hover effect to show more information, not a quick view, as users often mistake that for product pages.

Display user ratings permanently and include the number of ratings, as users value the number equally, if not more, than the actual score. In fact, place products with MORE ratings higher up.

Don’t make a separate form field for a coupon code; instead, hide it behind a link. Users are drawn to look at all form fields, and when they spot one for a coupon code, they will be tempted to hunt online for it, often resulting in purchasing from a competitor instead.

Be careful what information you ask for during checkout. Don’t ask for the same information twice, and make sure you don’t ask tricky information that will cause errors (for example, asking to specify a county in a country where this is not generally asked). Also, be sure to explain WHY users are getting an error.

Hide the navigation bar during the checkout process so that the users don't accidentally click their way out of the checkout process.

Explain why you are asking for seemingly unrelated information at checkout.

Make sure the “finalise purchase” button is large, obvious, and at the top of the checkout page.

Lastly, Thomas covered “Missed Opportunities in eCommerce.” He talked about the placement of the “guest checkout,” and how it should be placed on the left, with open form fields, or at the top of the page on mobile/app, to draw attention. He covered alternative and supplementary products, and the importance of showing other people’s purchases near the product, and also offer supplementary products. Thomas also urged retailers to make sure that when users search for something on the site, the search results make sense. Finally, he reminded merchants to always show the price per unit up front.

The next presentation was by Omniva (Estonian postal service) board member Ansi Arumeel and Development Manager Toomas Aasmäe from Rahva Raamat (Estonia’s largest book store). The topic was “How can a client find products faster and more efficiently in an online store?” The discussion largely included the audience and covered different delivery methods in Estonia, how to implement faster delivery, and what works and what doesn’t in the small Baltic country. Next up was Raili Argos from Telia, Estonia’s telecommunication provider. She talked about their online chat function and how it increases efficiency and provides faster and simpler customer service. Sales Growth Coach Indrek Saul gave a talk on “Price Psychology,” and the power of suggestion. He provided three main rules for retailers: use “price” digits that appeal to people (3.99 EUR), place products in a line to push shoppers to purchase items in the middle, and to check your assumptions.

Attendees were treated to a delicious lunch at Bliss, the vegetarian restaurant located in the same building where the conference took place.

At the end of the day, a jury that included Vaimo’s own Product Owner, Märt Aab, gave their opinions about each of the websites that were nominated for the award for being most user friendly.

We are happy to announce that Selver, Vaimo's client and one of the largest and most prestigious grocery store chains in Estonia, won the award for the most user friendly grocery store, despite the site being live only for 2 months. Read more about Vaimo's solution for Selver on Magento Enterprise here.

Below, I have marked the winning website in each category. Rahva Raamat, Estonia’s largest book store, won the overall award for most user friendly website in Estonia.

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